Governor's race shows R.I. turned redder and bluer

Wednesday

Nov 7, 2018 at 9:13 PMNov 7, 2018 at 9:40 PM

The map of Democratic Gov. Gina Raimondo's reelection victory Tuesday was a lot "bluer" than the map of her narrow win four years ago.

After winning 18 of Rhode Island's 39 cities and towns in 2014, Raimondo won 26 communities on Tuesday. The new pickups were Warwick, North Providence, North Kingstown, Narragansett, Lincoln and Hopkinton.

And Raimondo increased her winning margin over Republican runner-up Allan Fung in each one of the municipalities she won in both elections, in some cases by large margins.

In Providence, Raimondo took 65 percent of the vote in 2014 and 78 percent this year.

In Newport, Raimondo took 49 percent of the vote in 2014 and 69 percent this year.

In Middletown, Raimondo 42 percent of the vote in 2014 and 59 percent this year.

In Pawtucket, Raimondo took 52 percent of the vote in 2014 and 65 percent this year.

And in Charlestown, Raimondo took 38 percent of the vote in 2014 and 53 percent this year.

Those low "winning" vote totals four years ago point to a big reason Raimondo's vote totals spiked this year: none of the four non-major party candidates took anywhere near the 21.4 percent of the statewide vote that Moderate Party candidate and former Cool Moose Robert Healey did in 2014.

In fact, two of the towns Raimondo picked up on Tuesday — Bristol and Warren — were won by Healey in 2014.

(Independent Joe Trillo did the best of the bunch, receiving 4.4 percent of the vote.)

The apparent redistribution of the Healey vote to the major-party candidates meant that while Fung didn't win any new communities this year, the Republican cities and towns he did win got "redder," as he increased his vote total by around 21,000 votes statewide.

Of the 13 towns Fung won this year, he increased his margin over Raimondo in Burrillville, Coventry, Foster, Glocester, Johnston, Scituate and West Greenwich. But not in his hometown, Cranston, where he took 55 percent of the vote in 2014 and 53 percent this year.

The geographic pattern of this year's vote for governor followed the recent trend of Democratic gains in coastal suburbs, with Republicans controlling inland and rural areas.

President Donald Trump won 13 Rhode Island communities in the 2016 election versus Hillary Clinton, one more than Fung won Tuesday.

Raimondo won two Trump towns: Lincoln and Hopkinton. Fung won a single Clinton community: Cranston.

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